NRA blames videogames for violent gun crime, then releases own gun-based iPhone game

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After the awful events at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 children and six adults were killed by a 20-year-old gunman in December, the US National Rifle Association turned on videogames as one of the major contributory factors, rather than the weapons Adam Lanza was able to get his hands on.

"There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people," said Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the NRA, of what he called "vicious, violent videogames".

But only a few weeks later, the NRA has itself released a game featuring guns - for the iPhone - which is available on iTunes now and has a suggested age limit of four-years and up.

While the game doesn't allow the player to shoot at people, just targets and skeets, it still puts a virtual assault rifle into the hands of, potentially, a four-year-old child.

Now it's not for Pocket-lint to say whether this is right or wrong, but we do think we can highlight the hypocrisy of releasing such a game after the inflammatory statements at the end of last year, much as many other commenters and reports are doing.

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" writes Papershipsonfire. "The NRA complains about violent games and then releases one a week later. Sure you're not shooting at humans, but does it really matter? F***ing ridiculous. I hope this gets pulled off the App Store."

"They accuse video games of promoting gun violence, then release a game showing 4-year-olds how to use guns," posts Dkw1980.

Not all are against the game. "This is fun and informative, plus there is no need for eye and ear protection. A must have for any gun enthusiast and defender of the US constitution," says Joe in BrynMawr.

But, perhaps the best and most accurate comment comes from Frosticus maximus, who ends a posting: "This game is terrible." Enough said.